We would like to share with you a nice tutorial on how to wear the Emirati shemagh. In the video, you’ll see that the tutor uses the “Shall Omani” (Omani headwrap) rather than the Emirati shemagh. That’s because the fabric of shall Omani is thicker and so the details are better visible. But you can do the same with your shemagh or ghutra. The shemagh (also called keffiyeh, kufiya, ghutrah, hattah, mashadah, chafiye, dastmal yazdi, or cemedani) is the traditional Middle Eastern men’s headdress.
Let's begin.
First of all, you need to make your cloth into a triangular shape and then you give it a half fold. It is easier to lift your leg up, put the cloth on your leg, and give it a half fold.
The part you’ve just folded should be on the inside so that the fold isn’t visible.
So, you put the cloth on your head like a kerchief.
Now, hold the two ends and give them twists – two outward turns. Why do you do that? Because you must have these cute curves of the fabric at your temples.
Then, pull the ends back and cross them at the back. After that, bring them to the front again.
Next, you need to tie the ends. You can choose to start from either one of them. You put the end across your forehead, parallel to the main line of your shemagh. As the end is folded, you get several lines of fabric on your forehead.
By the way, 7-10 years ago, this used to be a big thing – how many lines of cloth you have on your head. Often, there were about 14-15 lines. But now, it's not really that important, so you can have only 3-4 lines and it’s fine.
Make sure that all the lines are parallel and evenly folded.
After you’ve arranged the lines of the first end, you tuck the remnant of your end into the fold at the back of your head.
And now you have the second end of the shemagh. It is the most important one because it's the one that is visible.
You repeat what you did with the first end. Of course, the second end should be parallel to the first one. So, right now you have 5 lines of fabric over your forehead.
How do you fix the remnant of this end? If you want this little end to be seen outside, like an extra tail, you put it through the gap between the folds at the back of your head. Or if you don’t want it to be seen, just tuck it into one of the folds so that it stays inside the folding.
And now, everything is ready.
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